Clinical laboratory testing has changed and improved remarkably over the past 70 years. Initially, tests or assays were performed manually, and generally utilized large quantities of serum, blood or other materials/body fluids. As mechanical technology developed in the industrial work place, similar technology was introduced into the clinical laboratory. With the introduction of new technology, methodologies were also improved in an effort to improve the quality of the results produced by the individual instruments, and to minimize the amount of specimen required to perform each test.
More recently, instruments have been developed to increase the efficiency of testing procedures by reducing turnaround time and decreasing the volumes necessary to perform various assays. Present directions in laboratory testing focus on cost containment procedures and instrumentation. Laboratory automation is one area in which cost containment procedures are currently being explored. Robotic engineering has evolved to such a degree that various types of robots have been applied in the clinical laboratory setting.
The main focus of prior art laboratory automation relies on the implementation of conveyor systems to connect areas of a clinical laboratory. Known conveyor systems in the laboratory setting utilize separate conveyor segments to move specimens from a processing station to a specific laboratory work station. In order to obtain cost savings, the specimens are sorted manually, and test tubes carrying the specimens are grouped in a carrier rack to be conveyed to a single specific location. In this way, a carrier will move a group of 5-20 specimens from a processing location to a specific work station for the performance of a single test on each of the specimens within the carrier rack.
With the advent of the inventors' new laboratory automation system, as described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 07/997,281, entitled "METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC TESTING OF LABORATORY SPECIMENS", the inventor has provided a laboratory automation system which requires a different type of conveyor system for the transport of specimens throughout the laboratory. The new laboratory automation system of the co-pending patent application calls for the identification and conveyance of an individual patient's specimen to at least one of a plurality of separate work stations. As discussed above, prior art conveyor systems were based on increasing the quantity of specimens conveyed to a single work station to obtain cost savings. For this reason, prior art conveyor systems were typically "point to point" wherein a plurality of specimens were moved from a processing location to a single work station for completion of a test on all such specimens, at which time the plurality of specimens were returned to the processing station. Such conveyor systems suffer several drawbacks.
First, it is not possible to expedite the processing of a single specimen which is included within a plurality of specimens conveyed to a specific work station. Rather, all of the specimens are conveyed to the work station, all of the specimens are tested, and then all of the specimens are returned to the processing station. Individualized, or prioritization, is not possible with such a conveyor system.
In addition, conducting more than one test on an individual specimen is time consuming. Again, an individual specimen is included in a group of specimens which is transported to a single work station. Before a second test may be performed on any individual specimen, the first test at the work station must be completed on all specimens included in the carrier rack transported to the particular work station. After completion of the first testing procedure at the first work station, all of the specimens are returned to the processing station, at which time individual specimens may then be redirected to a different carrier rack for transport with a plurality of other specimens to a second work station, wherein a multitude of identical tests are performed on a plurality of specimens in that second carrier rack.